Fanny Smith Crenshaw spent her early years in Nashville. Daughter of John Thomas Smith & Elizabeth Shotwell Smith. John Smith moved his family to Springfield, MO in 1855 after the death of his wife. FSC graduated 1857 from the Seminary School in Nashville. Married June 20, 1867 in Green County, MO to prominent Springfield businessman Lewis Allen Dicken "L.A.D." Crenshaw (see pendant portrait by Bingham, GCBCRS #2). Eight children. Family history describes her as "a strong minded character", talented in music and art, making oil paintings into her old age. Both Fanny and LAD were said to be personal friends of Bingham and both went for portrait sittings in Springfield (noted by great-great- grandson Thomas T. Crenshaw III).

Medium:

Oil
on canvas

Size:

42
x 32 inches

Inscribed reverse: Clara Crenshaw Early--Presented by her Mother. CCE was the daughter of the sitter Fanny Smith Crenshaw. This (somewhat confusing) inscription was written by FSC upon gifting the portrait to her daughter CCE. CCE explained in a note written to Springfield Art Museum regarding her future bequest of the painting: "I have an oil painting by George Caleb Bingham: it is a portrait of my mother, the late Fanny Smith Crenshaw, widow of the late L.A.D. Crenshaw; it was painted around the year 1869."